The Crucible
by Sheppio734
Summary: Trapped by the Condesce, the pre and post scratch kids and trolls must battle in a tournament bracket to the death, in the Condesce's colosseum she calls The Crucible. WARNING: Character death, lots of it. Main characters will bite the fricking dust practically every chapter. Some romance in later chapters possibly. Language.
1. Chapter 1

John woke up to the sound of drums. Rubbing his eyes, he thought about what he had seen what seemed like an instant ago. Just as all the chaos was in it's prime, the Condesce had engulfed everyone in some kind of bubble. He could not believe how quickly everything died down after that. Some kind of wave was sent out after that, and soon everyone was falling asleep. That's when he blacked as well. His eyes finally adjusting to the darkness, John saw bars in front of him. He peered through, not knowing what to expect, and saw Aranea just waking up, looking almost as confused as John had.

"Where are we?" Karkat woke up to the sound of Egbert's voice. For once in his life, John was asking something that actually made sense. All Karkat knew was that the Condesce was going to die. She used some shitty magic to knock them out, and they were all gog knows where. You have a feeling it, for once, won't help to shout. Mostly because his throat felt like sandpaper. "I don't know, but we'd better get out soon, I'm dying of fucking thirst here."

"Shut up, Karkat, I think we'll know what happened soon enough. I hear footsteps." Dave, for once, was not being ironic. He was being sore. He had not gone through that insane game for that long to be stuck in a cell, lying on hay. But at least he had his hearing. There were some people coming to see them now, for sure, but whether that was good or bad he did not know. Seeing the light come out of that doorway was like seeing the sun come up in the arctic winter. His eyes felt like they would never adjust, seeing such a bright shade of fuchsia should have burned out his retinas. But sadly, he was still staring at the slim figure of none other than Her Imperious Condescension.

**Authors Note:** I understand that this is super short, but, this being my first fanfic, I wanted to see if this was any good before writing more. Please send any feed back to me and I will start typing up a few more chapters. ;D


	2. Opening the Gates

The gong was loud. Very loud. Vriska woke up to blinding light and chains on her legs. Rubbing her eyes, she realized that she wasn't burning in the sun, and stopped worrying. Finally she looked down upon the spectacle going on around her. All of her friends and some humans she had never met were chained similarly to her on a round set of bleachers. Then she noticed the pit. In the center of the bleachers, there was a pit, about 75 yards in circumference, with a gate on either side. It had sand in some parts of the floor, and stone on the others, presumably to make terrain harder to traverse. Suddenly, the gates began to crank open. She turned her head to hear a shout from Karkat.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? SOME KIND OF FIGHTING RING?" Then Vriska saw who he was talking to. Her Imperious Condescension sat on a throne gilded with gold, with drones flanking her sides, and Meenah and Feferi chained in front of her.

"Karkat my mutant bitch, of course! It's gonna be mad sick watching you kill each other." She replied, her voice amplified by a drone's speaker. "Get our first combatants out here!"

Vriska was sickened by what she saw next. Tavros emerged from one end of the arena, obviously groggy being alive, and very confused. He saw her and called out. "vRISKA, wE'RE ALL ALIVE AGAIN, iSN'T THAT GREAT?" Vriska realized he probably only woken up just a second ago, and watched as a drone came up behind him and handed him his lance. He jumped in surprise, but took the weapon, looking rather confused on why he would need it. Then the second gate cranked up.

Equius looked out into the pit, then looked up, seeing his comrades. When he spotted Nepeta, he called out, and watched as her face turned from confusion to grief. ":33 Equius no! not you!" He wondered what she could be talking about, when he suddenly heard a booming voice telling him to "fight, bitchez." He looked across the pit he was in, and finally figured out what was happening. He was startled as a robot tapped him, and handed him a bow and quiver. He stared at Tavros, and reluctantly notched an arrow to the bow. When he pulled the string back, however, it unsurprisingly snapped. Thinking deeply about how he could not kill the lowblood, Equius strode toward Tavros. Tavros, however, not knowing that Equius was not planning to simply crack his neck, pushed the lance's hilt into his armpit, and began to charge. Immediately upon reaching him, Zahhak shot his arm up, gripping the lance, and brought it down on his knee, snapping it cleanly in half. "D Why d00 you make me d00 this, Nitram?" Equius said, pushing Tavros onto the ground. " bECAUSE, i NEED TO LIVE," The lowblood replied. Pinning Tavros' arms under his knees, Equis straddled him and raised his fist. "D I'll make this quick, friend" Just before he could deliver the culling blow, however, Nepeta cried out, and Equius looked up, letting the pressure on Tavros' arms up, and distracting him for a few seconds. By the time he looked back to the brown blooded troll, it was far too late. Equius felt the lance enter his chest, crying out STRONGLY, and falling to his back. "sORRY,"


End file.
